We’re going to be putting our bike product onto a crowdfunding platform in the near future and I can’t decide which platform/provider to go with.

I think it’ll be an all or nothing campaign that we’ll run for 30 days to keep things fresh and urgent with a few levels of initial investment but the main product is several hundred pounds and that’s the main focus.

I’m aware of Kickstarter as the “brand leader” and that it gives the project most credibility but it is too big and will we get lost in all the dross?

IndieGoGo is an alternative and I’ve seen some good things done on there but does it lose out against KS?

There are alternatives but are they doomed to failure because of the lack of potential exposure or credibility?

What are your experiences?

Cheers

Gary

I’ve never looked on a crowdfunding platform for a product to buy – always been directed there by links on social media/here/etc.

Clearly I’m a sample of one but I wouldn’t expect the platform I was listed on to promote my product or provide much in the way of organic investment rather I’d look at what percentage they want etc and use that as a guide and then get my product in front of people via other channels. Advantage of a big platform like kickstarter is that fewer people will need to create an acount to back you which is one less hurdle to get over (although with a £100’s of product they’ll tend to be committed to buy, I guess).

I’ve never looked on a crowdfunding platform for a product to buy – always been directed there by links on social media/here/etc.

same, although personally when I hear “crowdfunding” I do always think of Kickstarter, so that’s what I’d choose (unless the terms & conditions on one of the others were more favourable for some reason).

There seems to be a general 5% fee plus whatever the payment platform (prob Paypal at 3%) charge. This is completely fair of you consider the added credibility that KS can lend the project. It does mean we’ll have to add 8-10% to the ultimate goal to pay for it but I assume that’s normal. We’re only looking to effectively pre-sell product so we can make a production run, not raise funds for development or whatever so it has to pay for itself.

the added credibility that KS can lend the project

😀 😆 🙄

Lol. I think the “credibility” is all down to the pitch, e.g. whether you have prototypes/short production run that can be seen (videos) working & have been tested (with impartial feedback) versus something that’s still in the idea/development stage.

No way would I contribute money towards anything that wasn’t already a final product unless it was something very niche that I happened to be interested in and also potentially game changing! (although I can think of no examples of what that might be!!)

thenorthwind – Member
the added credibility that KS can lend the project

🙂 😆 🙄

Well I can’t see any other reason This POS got funded than there’s an air of “cred” around Kickstarter 🙄 😆

zilog6128 – Member
Lol. I think the “credibility” is all down to the pitch, e.g. whether you have prototypes/short production run that can be seen (videos) working & have been tested (with impartial feedback) versus something that’s still in the idea/development stage.

No way would I contribute money towards anything that wasn’t already a final product unless it was something very niche that I happened to be interested in and also potentially game changing! (although I can think of no examples of what that might be!!)

I’ve financed prototypes myself and we’ve tested them extensively and proven the concept in race conditions over the last 8 months but the cost of a full MOQ production run is just too much to stretch to for us.

It’s very niche, very novel and it might actually be ground breaking. 😳 We’ve certainly had some great independent reviews and some pre-ordering success so far but just not quite enough to tip it over the doable edge. There is lots of conventional choice for this particular product and we are looking for early adopters so Kickstarter looks ideal but is it?

Good marketing (see the list of publications they managed to get in), people’s ignorance about bicycle tech and credulity for high tech solutions.

I wasn’t knocking your idea Speeder BTW, just the idea that Kickstarter lends things credibility. But obviously things like that spokeless bike up there get funded, so maybe it does.

I for one am intrigued about your idea, so go on, get your stealth ad in…

Northwind have just PMed you a link – this isn’t an ad, was just looking for some advice. 😀

aracer – Member
Good marketing (see the list of publications they managed to get in), people’s ignorance about bicycle tech and credulity for high tech solutions.

I hadn’t registered that aspect – it is/was headline worthy for many different publications though I have no idea how they’ll hit even 1/2 of their promises with the budget they’ve set and the level of development they show in the video and can’t believe other people can’t also see that.

Anyway enough of that, it’s pretty educational and shows what can be done. Bonus!

We chose not to use a crowdfunding because of the credibility of many of the things on there – the one you linked too was a particularly special example. Our tooling investment was too much though.
However many established brands use it to ‘fund’ new projects so I suspect the funding is secondary to the exposure in many cases. In that respect we have some regrets about not using it.

Providing that you are not competing directly with our products I’d be happy to take a look at what you’re doing a share any findings we have regarding finance and promotion.

Some neat ideas there but no overlaps at all – I’ll PM you cheers_drive. 🙂